Thomas Girardi, the lawyer struck down found guilty of having fraudded his own clients, has been hospitalized and cannot attend a hearing scheduled for Thursday when a federal judge was ready to hear evidence that could determine if he is sent to prison or to an appropriate medical establishment.
The disclosure of the hospitalization of Girardi came to a file submitted by his defense lawyers, who asked the American district judge Josephine Staton to delay the hearing for one to two weeks.
Girardi was taken by ambulance on Wednesday morning in a nursing home in Orange County, and it was admitted in the afternoon due to a “liver dysfunction”, according to the file of federal public defenders Samuel Cross and Charles Snyder.
“He will probably stay there for several days,” the lawyers wrote. The defense team insisted that their client wanted to be physically present for the hearing and argued that the decision otherwise would break their rights.
Staton has not yet made a decision.
The episode adds another torsion to the Girardi saga – a capital fall for a man who was once one of the lawyers and political donors in Los Angeles. During Girardi’s trial last summer, the prosecutors said that law firm Girardi Keese had worked as a Ponzi type program that siphoneed up to $ 100 million in customer funds to, among other things, take out the lifestyle and musical career of his wife, “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” Star Girardi. The jurors condemned Girardi to four leaders of wire fraud.
Prosecutors are looking for a 14 -year -old prison sentence for Girardi, and he was initially sentenced in December of last year. But his lawyers argued that because of dementia and continuous cognitive decline, their client should be held in prison and stay in their nursing home in Orange County.
To confirm the current state of Girardi, the judge ordered him to undergo a medical assessment in a federal prison to Butner, NC
Experts concluded that he did not need special treatment, although their full report was not published.
A forensic psychologist and a neuropsychologist who assessed it “determined that not only Mr. Girardi can be imprisoned safely and appropriately in (the federal penitentiary system) … He does not even need, at that time, to be placed in a specialized medical establishment,” wrote his defense lawyer in a file in which they dispensed the results and declared that they authors of the report.
During the hearing on Thursday, these experts were to testify to the mental state of Girardi and the basis of their conclusions – and face a counter -examination of the Girardi legal team, who always puts pressure for him to serve his sentence in a medical establishment.
Last month, Staton condemned Christopher Kamon, the former financial director of the now closed law firm in Girardi, at 10 years in prison for his role in large -scale fraud.
Girardi and Kamon are faced with additional federal charges in Chicago for the misappropriation of millions of dollars in colonies for families of airplane victims.
The staff writer, Harriet Ryan, contributed to this report.
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